DIY: A Blessing & A Curse

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When we moved into our new home we had to make a lot of design decisions (and we still have a lot more to make). One thing we decided was that we didn’t want to put a dresser in our bedroom-we wanted to put a little seating area instead. That meant that our closet was going to have to be extremely organized with lots of storage areas to fit everything we had. It took us a while to get this project started, so in the meantime our closet was a complete DISASTER. I’m a little embarrassed to share these before pictures with you all!

Before:

As you can see, everything was still in suitcases, boxes, bags, whatever was available. It looked awful, made it impossible to find specific things, and was embarrassing!!!

We made our plan for the layout, and all of the materials for the closet came from Home Depot. We knew we needed drawers, shelves, lots of hanging space, and OF COURSE space for shoes & bags!

First we had to clear everything out and remove all the existing shelves. My husband moved the light switch from inside the closet to the outside (isn’t he amazing!!). He also took off the existing base molding and painted a white semi gloss 3/4 of the way up the walls so it would match the color of our built-ins.

After assembling some of the pieces in the living room, it was time to start the installation!

Since we have two toddlers at home we really wanted to ensure that all the pieces were sturdy and installed correctly. We used brackets to make sure none of the pieces would move or tip over.

Once we had all the pieces installed we had to go around and caulk, add trim where needed, and put the baseboard back on. As you can see there were some pretty big gaps between the pieces in some areas.

We used Power Grab glue to glue down the trim. Here are some pictures of the trim:

This closet is officially FINISHED now and it is everything I dreamed about! It has a space for everything we need and keeps everything organized. Plus it’s a lot brighter in there since we went with white!!

This year my husband and I made a lot of big decisions and changes-one of which was the decision to sell our home! We bought the house two years ago and while we never actually got around to furnishing the whole house, it allowed us to really learn a lot about renovating. When we bought the house it needed some work: it was 9 years old, had been owned by several people, and didn’t have any updates.

Here are the pictures from the listing when we bought the house:

In the time that we lived there we made the following changes to the house:

When we put our home on the market this spring our realtor had a professional photographer come to take pictures (it was like my secret dream come true-professional pictures of all the hard work we had done!). Here’s the website to see all of the pictures: http://www.peterevansphotography.com/greysands.htm

Here are a few of the pictures that were taken:

We really loved our time living here and were sad to move out of the fabulous neighborhood. But it was the right decision for our family and we are excited to start the next chapter with our new baby girl!

The title of this post reminds me of a children’s storybook title, but really I just wanted to share how much I love spray paint! It truly allows you to transform anything you already have in your home that just needs a bit of updating.

I received my record player as a Christmas gift from *Santa* a few years ago, but i never had anywhere to put it, so it stayed on my dresser for a while and I kept my records just in a drawer somewhere. I just didn’t know what kind of record cabinet I wanted to have! The other week I was browsing some Facebook yard sale pages and I came across this mini record cabinet! Although I was fairly worried it was going to be too short to realistically use, it was the perfect height once I put my record player on top. I searched around the internet for cabinets similar to this one and I found this one & also this one.

Updating this piece was so easy! I took off the doors and set them aside. I used a piece of sandpaper we had lying around our basement and I roughed up the top and sides of the cabinet. I bought a can of Rustoleum white semi-gloss spray paint I bought at Home Depot (okay, it really took me 2 cans of spray paint) and began to spray away! The important thing to keep in mind with spray paint is not to spray too much paint in one area at a time, otherwise it could begin to build up and form drips. Just do light coats and continue to spray until the entire piece is evenly covered. After that was done I cleaned off the doors and replaced the knobs (you can buy the knobs here).

I’ve actually used spray paint in many areas of our home! Here are a few pictures of other pieces I’ve updated/transformed with a can of spray paint:

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About Me:

I'm just a girl who has fallen in love with home design, DIY projects, and photography. By day I'm a SAHM to two darling little girls, but I also *love* to learn how to improve and update my house (without spending a lot of money!). I'm really lucky to have a great husband that is super supportive of all my design craziness (and a great handyman!). I love learning new things and expanding my skills.